Woodland Park adopts unified development code after multi‑year rewrite

Woodland Park’s City Council unanimously adopted a new Unified Development Code (UDC) on March 5, approving Ordinance 15‑21, Series 2026 to consolidate and modernize the city’s land‑use regulations.

Planning staff and consultants said the update consolidates title 16 (mobile home regulations), title 17 (subdivisions), title 18 (zoning) and a portion of title 5 (wireless communications) into a single code intended to simplify procedures and clarify definitions. Jennifer Gardner of Logan Simpson, who presented the draft, said the project focused on reorganizing repetitive or inconsistent language and centralizing application procedures.

“This is a really exciting evening for us, after so much hard work on this code project,” Gardner said, describing the restructuring of the code into seven chapters that cover general provisions, zone districts, development standards, use standards, subdivision standards, administration and definitions.

Council and staff emphasized that the update was primarily structural: numerical standards such as lot size, setbacks, density and building height were not changed in this draft, and several topics—architectural design guidelines, dark‑sky lighting standards, parking metrics and engineering specifications—were identified for future review.

The council approved a set of targeted amendments before final adoption. The changes moved “private stables” from an agricultural use to an accessory use (permitted only in the AG zone and limited to single‑household detached dwellings), changed the status of commercial stables in AG from permitted to conditional, and removed duplicate language in temporary sign provisions while reinstating clauses for holiday/seasonal decorations and campaign signs.

Karen Schmick, who summarized the planning commission’s review, said the commission found the revised UDC met project objectives and recommended approval with the edits presented. The council made a motion to approve the ordinance with the recommended edits and voted unanimously.

Next steps include final codification and publishing the consolidated code; staff noted several topics remaining for future amendment and additional public review. The ordinance adoption takes effect according to the dates specified in the final codified document.